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After racking up more than 34 hours behind the wheel over a 2,874 mile bumpy South American terrain, Ewy Rosqvist drove into the history books - quite literally - on November 4, 1962 when she became the first woman to win the Grand Prix of Argentina.

During the early 1960s, top international female athletes were still a rarity, but Rosqvist and her Mercedes Benz co-driver, Ursula Wirth, were hailed as pioneers of female motorsport overnight as photos of the Swedish pair splashed across national newspapers around the world.

Dominating the race from start to finish, the pair won all six stages of the gruelling ten-day trek across Argentina, finishing three hours quicker than the car in second place with a new record speed of 79mph - a whole 3mph faster than the previous year’s winner, Walter Schock.

Of the 286 cars that registered for the exhausting route, only 43 made it to the finish, with Rosqvist and Wirth being the only one of four registered Mercedes vehicles to complete the rally. Rosqvist’s achievement was all the more remarkable given that she had to deal with the death of her teammate, Hermann Kuhne, who suffered a fatal accident during the second stage of the race.

How flying vet turned sneers to cheers

Growing up on a rural farm in Sweden, Rosqvist’s journey into motor racing began in the modest environs of the southern Swedish town of Ystad. As the only girl born into a farming family, she learned to drive at a young age after her father bought her a Mercedes-Benz 170S to help her pursue a career as a veterinary assistant.

Ewy Rosqvist clocked up to 124 miles a day driving on poorly built dirt roadsCredit:
DaimlerAG

She clocked up to 124 miles a day driving on poorly built dirt roads, speeding from farm to farm while honing her driving skills. By the time her first two years of vet practice were over, she was driving so perfectly that she could finish her rounds two hours before her colleagues.

Her racing career took off following her marriage in 1954 to engineer and racer Ynvge Rosqvist, who employed his wife as a co-driver for several rallies. By 1959, she was ready to race on the international stage and claimed the first of three consecutive European Ladies’ Cup titles along with four Rally to the Midnight Sun wins as she quickly established herself as one of Europe's most prominent racing drivers.

Despite her success behind the wheel, Rosqvist was still balancing her competitive racing career as a vet in 1961, but her breakthrough came a year later when she signed a professional racing contract with Mercedes-Benz ahead of competing at the famous Argentina Grand Prix.

Before the event was even underway, Rosqvist and Wirth were ridiculed as women for entering the iconic long-distance race by the same newspapers which would be in awe of their unprecedented triumph days later. It was only when the pair chalked up victories on the first two stages did they start turning heads from the world’s media.

Their success was the second consecutive victory at the event for Mercedes-Benz, but the pair would finish third at the 1963 edition. After retiring a year later at the age of 35, Rosqvist remained involved in the sport as an ambassador for Mercedes, her dream as a female motor rally driver well and truly accomplished.